45-year-old Morgan was on a routine trip to the local Wal-Mart with her husband and kids. They were only really there for groceries, but Alma, her 6-year-old daughter, had demanded that they check out the toy area before they left. The girl had developed a bit of a spoiled attitude, but Morgan really didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the store. Her teen son Ray had wandered off to the nearby video game area while Alma browsed for a new Barbie doll.
While her husband Liam handled their hyperactive daughter, Morgan couldn't help but notice an out of place glimmer in the middle of a bunch of stuffed animals. Pushing them out of the way, the tired mother discovered a fancy red-and-black lamp that looked straight out of the movie Aladdin. Realizing that this metal object definitely wasn't a toy, she grabbed it, planning to turn it in to customer service. Turning it over in her hands, she noticed that it didn't have a price tag, and absentmindedly rubbed the area where the sticker should've been.
Suddenly, the entire store seemed to freeze around her as an actual genie appeared before her eyes. The large, muscular gray man shrouded in smoke seemed to study the middle-aged woman in front of him, then addressed her in a booming, thunderous bass. "Greetings, mistress. You have summoned me from my lamp, and I shall grant you one wish."
Morgan regarded the genie with skepticism, wondering why she was only getting one wish instead of three. Also the fact that there was a freaking genie floating in the air in front of her. Deciding that she was, in fact, in the middle of a crazy dream, she quickly decided what her wish would be. "Well, I've only ever been tired since I had my first kid, and I've always wished I could just... start over, you know? Have a fresh new start, live a different life, without my husband and kids dragging me down."
The genie considered the woman's wish for a second. It was one of the most selfish wishes he had heard in a long time, but searching her memories, he understood why. Her husband was a lazy man who enabled the little girl's bratty behavior, and the teenager had started acting out as well. He came up with a way to grant the wish while also enacting a bit of twisted justice, and finally replied to the woman. "Your wish is my command, mistress." With a snap of his fingers, the woman and her family vanished, their previous lives erased from reality.
A few aisles away, a young woman's unspoken wish was granted as well. In this new reality, 21-year-old Maya now remembered a positive pregnancy test taken 2 weeks ago, learning that she was about a month along. She and her fiancée had been trying for a child since they got engaged, and they were finally going to start a family.
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Morgan and her family woke up in darkness. As the others began shouting and screaming, all somehow in her mind, the fatigued mother began gathering as much information about her surroundings as she could. Wherever they were, it was wet everywhere, as if she was floating in some kind of warm liquid. It didn't quite feel like water, perhaps a little bit thicker and slimier. She felt like something was attached to her, a sentiment that the others shared.
Suddenly, a muffled-yet-booming voice rang out from somewhere above them. "I just can't wait to meet our new baby!" the feminine voice said, and suddenly Morgan realized what had happened. Her wish had been granted, and her family had been dragged along for the experience.
'Everyone, be quiet for a moment!' Morgan cried out mentally, and her husband and children thankfully complied. 'I know what's going on. I made a wish for a new beginning, and now we're zygotes inside a pregnant woman. We're going to be reborn as new people.'
A pause commenced, followed by complaints from her new womb-mates. Morgan's family didn't seem too pleased by the revelation, but she was perfectly fine with it. Although, she was wondering why her family had been roped into it as well. She had specifically wanted a new life WITHOUT the others, so why were they here? Regardless, she settled into her new existence, waiting to develop into a form more recognizable as human. She guessed their new mother was about a month along in her pregnancy, and she couldn't wait for the new quadruplets to be born.
As days turned into weeks, the transformed family started realizing that Morgan's revelation wasn't entirely accurate. As the former mother excitedly detailed every development on her new body, the others discovered they weren't actually going through the same changes. Liam felt like his body wasn't solid, and something was growing inside him while he was confined in a fleshy sack. Ray felt a slimy liquid contained within him, and he himself was slowly expanding, pushing other things around him slightly out of the way. Finally, Alma felt like she was attached to two different things, wrapped around something else. She also felt like something was flowing through her, her body feeling more like a flexible tube than anything else.
Morgan realized exactly what everyone else had turned into, but she decided not to tell them, especially not wanting to send Alma the umbilical cord into a panic. Liam had turned into the amniotic fluid she was floating in, and Ray was the very uterus they were confined to. She had quickly figured out what each of their futures had in store for them, and she didn't want to deal with the fallout of revealing that information. She simply stayed quiet as her former family chattered around her.
It was hard for the transformed family to tell the passing of time, with only the occasional utterances of the woman they were inside of to help. It was after the woman's four month checkup that an interesting development came about. Morgan had felt the unfamiliar appendage beginning to grow between her developing legs, but the doctor's muffled voice confirmed her suspicion. "You're going to have a boy!" he said, which also cemented in the others' minds the fact that they weren't in the same boat as the former mother. The woman was only going to have one baby, not four.
Within the woman's uterus, Morgan felt her former daughter's long, winding body wrap around her left leg. Alma was the tube that fed the borrowed nutrients from the future mother to the male fetus that was once a mother itself, and she was beginning to figure out what she was. The girl didn't know the word for it, but she had seen pictures in one of her mother's books before. The fact that she couldn't feel arms or legs finally made sense to her, not that it was any comfort to her.
Ray hadn't quite figured out his form yet, but he knew he was one of the woman's organs. He felt the other organs around him be pushed out of the way by his ever-expanding body, yet he was just a bit too dense to put the pieces together. The transformed teen was certainly annoyed at the movement of the liquid inside him.
Speaking of which, Liam knew exactly what he was. The movement of the humanoid shape inside him meant he was nothing but a bunch of amniotic fluid, and the knowledge of what would eventually happen to him was terrifying. He was a liquid now, and once the barrier keeping him contained was broken... He would've shuddered at the thought if he had retained the ability.
Morgan continued developing, the nutrients provided by her daughter-turned-umbilical cord contributing to her growth. The uterus that was once her son began stretching even more in response to her growing body approaching it's size, and she heard Ray's complaints every time she kicked with her legs. She could hear her future mother's happiness every time she felt another kick, so she made sure to do it fairly often, much to Ray's chagrin. Alma felt herself wrapping around different parts of the baby's body, having figured out that the fetus was her mother.
The most interesting development for Liam, Ray and Alma was the introduction of light. It was dim, being filtered through several layers of skin and other tissues, but it was a nice change from the constant darkness they had known for the last few months. They could now vaguely see Morgan's developing body, still upset that she seemed so happy about the situation.
A total of eight months went by. Ray was stretched pretty much to his limit, simply wishing for relief. He had figured out he was the woman's uterus, and that he held his entire former family within him. His father was the annoying slimy liquid, his little sister the weird tube attached to him, and his mother the soon-to-be-born baby boy stretching him thin. He wasn't exactly happy about the revelation, simply looking forward to the birth so he could shrink to a normal size.
Liam's liquid body had increased in pressure, the growing fetus displacing him more and more as time went on. He counted himself lucky that none of him had leaked out, but he knew his luck would soon run out. Above all, he just wished his wife-turned-infant would stop wiggling around, constantly mixing his form around. His form was confusing to a once-solid human, but he'd honestly take it over what he knew was coming up.
Alma kept supplying her former mother with nutrients from their host, having absolutely no control over the process. She was annoyed by the sensation of being wrapped around the baby's limbs and torso, but knew she couldn't really do anything about it. The former girl remained unaware of what her own future would entail, since she didn't know what would happen to a body part like her once the baby she was attached to was born.
All the while, Morgan had instinctively turned her infantile body upside-down, in preparation for her rebirth. The fact that she would be born as a boy hadn't quite sunk in yet, but she was looking forward to her new life regardless. She would finally be free from her old family, just like she had wished so many months ago. Who cared if they hated her by this point? She was the human now, not them. The former woman tuned the others out of her mind, eager to meet her new mother.
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Maya was waddling toward the kitchen when it happened. There was a sudden lurching in her swollen abdomen, and she heard a splash underneath her. She knew her water had broken, and called out for her husband to rush her to the hospital. The woman who was about to officially become a mother decided that she would ask her older sister to stop by her house to mop up the mess, and braced herself for the glorious hardship to come.
It was a long night of labor, but it was absolutely worth it as she gazed upon her son's face for the first time. The umbilical cord was cut, the remaining end forming the little boy's belly button. Any remaining amniotic fluid was gently washed off the fragile infant's skin, and the newly-named Emmett drifted off to sleep as he was breastfed for the first time.
Morgan felt the fluid around her suddenly drain away, her former husband's unimportant shrieks not bothering her in the slightest. As she began sliding out of the fleshy sack her son had turned into, and into a tight slimy tube, she knew her new life was about to officially begin. She heard the screaming of the woman she would soon call her mother, in pain from her own body painfully exiting the larger human's body through the tight canal.
Morgan relished in the feeling of the top of her head poking through, the cool air signaling her entry into the world. The tube that was once her daughter was dragged along with her, and what remained of her former husband helped lubricate the tunnel as she continued being pushed through.
She soon left her former son completely behind, and her feet were finally pulled out of her new mother's vagina. The doctor's utterance of "It's a boy! What's his name?" reminded her that she should leave her feminine pronouns behind, in preparation for a new life growing up as a boy.
"His name is Emmett," his new mother replied with relief, and the adult mind inside the tiny newborn left his old identity behind for good. He could vaguely feel his umbilical cord being tied and cut, a small shriek being one of the last reminders of his old life for the time being.
Emmett felt the soft cloth wiping off the remnants of his former husband. He was passed into the warm, comforting arms of his mother, and felt the large nipple brush against his lips. The newborn opened his mouth, and instinct took over as he suckled the warm milk from his mother's breast. He was vaguely aware of the soft whimpering coming from his abdomen, but he chose to completely ignore the former girl, unable to speak through his mind anymore anyway. With that, the boy drifted off to sleep in his new mother's arms.
Liam felt a barrier give way, then screamed in panic as a large portion of his liquid body drained from the area, splashing on the hardwood floor below. His vision was now split into two areas, the puddle on the floor and the portion that still remained inside. Focusing more on the portion outside, he looked up at the woman that had unknowingly played host to his family for the past eight months. She was wearing a loose dress with nothing underneath, making him realize he was lucky to not have part of him stuck as a stain on a pair of panties. The woman looked down at him with a mixture of disgust and excitement, then called for her husband.
She finally stepped away from the man-turned-puddle, and Liam got an even better look. The bulging stomach that contained the rest of him - as well as his family - was attached to an otherwise fit-looking young lady, her honey-blonde hair hanging perfectly straight from her head. That was all he could gather as the woman and her husband rushed out of the house, leaving his pathetic puddle body sitting on the floor.
After a long wait of absolutely nothing happening in the house, Liam decided to focus on the part of himself still inside the woman. He was mostly a thin layer of amniotic fluid coating the infant boy that used to be his wife, and she was being squeezed through the woman's vaginal canal. Annoyed that his current purpose was only to make the baby's passage a bit smoother, he soon felt the cold air on the baby's head.
Eventually, the baby had fully exited the new mother, and Liam was left freezing in the cool air. He could feel every little movement the newly-named Emmett made, but he hadn't thought of what would come next. He saw the soft cloth approaching, and he realized that it would soon be his temporary home. The cloth wiped his remaining fluid layer off of the infant, and he felt himself being quickly absorbed into it. He didn't really want to deal with being washed out of it, so he decided to leave his old family behind and focus on his puddle portion.
He quickly discovered that every part of him was going to be dealt with in different, equally horrifying ways. With his vision focused entirely on the puddle of slowly drying amniotic fluid, he watched in horror as an unfamiliar woman began pushing a wet mop along the floor. As the first threads of the mop flicked against his edge, the former man felt a small portion of his body be absorbed into it. With three more swipes, Liam's puddle body was absorbed entirely into the mop, mixed in with the water and mild soap. Parts of him were contained within, left in darkness for the time being.
Liam watched as the mop was carried outside, the woman holding it headed for small shed on the property. It looked like a larger than average yard, and it took a couple minutes of violent shaking and swinging within the mop's threads to reach her destination. 'At least Morgan will have a joyful, pampered second childhood,' he thought to himself bitterly as the head of the mop he was absorbed into was placed into a plastic vice. He heard water running somewhere above him, and he felt as his liquid body was slowly washed out of the mop.
With a sudden extreme pressure, the plastic vice squeezed hard on the mophead, twisting lightly as the former man was wrung out. His diluted body hit the bottom of the floor sink with a splatter, then began being pulled toward a drain in the middle. Liam wanted to get a good last look at the woman, but his vision was too distorted by the water he was mixed into.
His vision distorted even more, pulled into a swirl as his liquid body was washed down the drain. As he traveled through the pipe system to the sewer that would be his new home, Liam's only thoughts were of his children, trapped as they were in their own new forms.
Ray felt the amniotic fluid that was once his father suddenly drain from his body. He felt his form begin squeezing rhythmically outside his control, slowly forcing the baby boy contained within out through a tight tube connected to him. As the infant was pushed out, he was left with an increasing and uncomfortable emptiness, having been filled with fluid and fetus for eight long months.
The former teenager had mostly accepted his new lot in life, realizing there wouldn't be any escape from it anyway. The baby he once called Mom continued being pushed out of his convulsing body, and he finally felt the tiny feet exit his chamber. Ray wasn't completely finished contracting, and he found himself mentally apologizing to his screaming host for the pain he was causing her. After all, he felt the pain even more strongly than she could, and it was absolutely excruciating.
His body finally slowed it's contractions, coming to a stop as he heard the woman name her newborn son. He could just barely hear the metallic noise of a pair of scissors underneath the sudden screech of pain from the umbilical cord, with a significant portion of his former little sister's body being rapidly pulled back into his chamber. Ray couldn't hear anything coming from the now-useless tube, so he figured Alma had chosen to focus on the portion of herself still attached to the infant. He couldn't blame her; if he could, he would choose to exist in the outside world as well.
Days went by, and he felt something inside him begin to loosen. Ray knew it was the placenta and remains of the umbilical cord getting ready to be expelled from his chamber. Even more days later, and the last of the signs of his host's pregnancy was finally gone, the shriveled portion of his former sister going with it. With that, he was left completely alone for the first time since they had been transformed.
Ray would exist in permanent darkness from then on. Three weeks later, he began contracting again, being forced to give his host her first period since giving birth. He apologized profusely, even with the knowledge that she couldn't hear him. In fact, no one would ever hear him again.
Months went by, with a week of painful menstruation contained within each. After the tell-tale movements of his host and her husband's intimacy, he felt something in particular change within him. Somehow, Ray instinctively knew he was about to have another child growing within him, but this time he would go through the process alone. He wasn't looking forward to it, but he knew it was entirely out of his control. He was just a uterus after all, and would be until the day his host died.
Nine months later, Ray began contracting painfully once again as the soon-to-be-born little girl was forced out of him.
Alma felt her father's liquid body drain out of the area around her, and she started hearing the muffled sound of a woman screaming in pain. She had a strong idea of what was happening, but wasn't entirely sure until she felt her ropey body being pulled out of her big brother's chamber. Connected to her former mother as she was, she was dragged along with the baby boy, squeezed between his chest and the tight tube they were being pushed along while still being partially wrapped around the infant's left leg.
She heard the voices and screaming become clearer and clearer, until she finally began exiting the woman, still connected to the new baby's stomach. Part of her tube body remained inside the new mother, the difference in temperature being deeply uncomfortable for her. Alma would've been happy to be able to see the outside world again, but not only was the world infinitely larger from her new perspective, she also saw the doctor's gloved hand approaching.
She felt the latex-covered fingers take hold of a portion of her body, right up against the crying baby's stomach. The doctor then tied that part of her into a tight knot, leaving her in mild pain with the blood flow from the new mother mostly cut off. Finally, Alma watched in horror as a pair of scissors was lowered toward her, opening with the blades on either side of her. She felt the cold metal come into contact with her just above the uncomfortable knot. With an unbelievably quick motion, the sharp steel blades cruelly sliced through her, severing the connection between baby and mother once and for all. She shrieked in pain as she felt the larger part of herself be drawn back into the mother's womb.
A cream was applied to her stub of a body, quickly dulling the pain from being cut in two. Alma's vision was partially obscured by the substance, but it did nothing to hide the knowledge of her new existence. She may have been turned into an umbilical cord (not that she knew the term), but she would now live as nothing but her mother-turned-baby's bellybutton. Her consciousness now confined to a tiny divot in the infant boy's abdomen, she would be an unwilling passenger in the newly-named Emmett's life.
Days went by, the girl-turned-bellybutton quickly healing from the process that left her in this pathetic new form. Alma tried to get her new host's attention, but the infant gave no sign of being able to hear her. She found herself considering herself lucky the newborn was rarely fully dressed, giving her a decent view of the world, however terrifyingly large it may have been. She relished in whatever enjoyment she could pull from her new life on the boy's belly, especially the soft baby blue blankets he was regularly wrapped in.
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Years later, Emmett was celebrating his 5th birthday. He'd had an amazing second childhood, with a large group of friends he met in preschool currently gathered around him. The boy was eternally grateful to the genie who gave him this new life, and he was looking forward to starting kindergarten at the end of the summer. For now, he was more focused on opening his presents, eagerly awaiting the next part of the party. It was mid-July after all, and his parents had decided on a pool party. Emmett loved the water, and was doing well in his beginner swimming lessons.
His old family largely forgotten, he began tearing into the present from his best friend Cheyenne. She and her parents had gotten him a cool shirt from his favorite TV show, and he couldn't wait to try it on after the party. He looked up from the present, seeing his mother occupying his little sister out of the corner of his eye. Her stomach was bulging more than ever from the twin girls contained within, less than a month from their due date.
Emmett thought of his old family for the first time since he relearned how to talk. How was Ray the uterus holding up, stretched out twice as much as he had ever been before, while still confined in unending darkness? What about Liam, his ever-increasingly diluted form circulating through the water cycle? Not to mention Alma, trapped under his shirt as she was, a miniscule detail of the growing boy's body.
With a shrug, the birthday boy put those thoughts out of his mind for the last time. He had a new family now, and he wasn't going to let himself be dragged down by the old one. Oblivious to the heartlessness of that thought, he moved on to the next present, tearing into the wrapping paper with childish excitement.
